SW News: China's crackdown on Uyghur Muslims has been formally condemned as "genocide" by France alongside other Western countries. Last week, the French National Assembly passed a resolution declaring China's persecution of the Uyghur minority a crime against humanity. The non-binding resolution was submitted by the opposition Socialists in the lower house but was also backed by President Emmanuel Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) party.

The lawmakers almost overwhelmingly passed the resolution with 169 votes in favor and one against barely two weeks before the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The resolution urged the French government to take the appropriate steps in the international community and its foreign policy toward the People's Republic of China to defend the Xinjiang region's minority population of Muslims. The resolution came after a similar measure in the United Kingdom in April 2021. In February 2021, the Netherlands and Canadian parliaments labeled China's treatment of the Uyghurs "genocide," while the US government did likewise under former President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, criticising the resolution in a statement, the Chinese embassy in France "expressed its deep concern" that the resolution "will seriously damage China-France relations." It further added that "the French side is fully aware of the absurdity and harmfulness of this resolution. It must show coherence between word and deed and take concrete actions to safeguard the healthy development of Sino-French relations."

NGOs have long accused China of holding over a million Uyghurs and other Turk minorities in huge labor camps in Xinjiang, the country's westernmost province. The camps are described as vocational training centers to combat radicalism by Beijing, which opposes the term "genocide."